


What's in the Box?

by lightlysalted_almonds



Category: Witch's Heart (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Claire is very animated, Crushes, F/F, Fluff, Gals being pals, Gift Giving, Gifts, One Shot, Presents, Teasing, Zizel waxes poetic, a few days into any scenario before bad things start happening, a little awkward, hand holding, if that's a thing, indirect hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23180308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightlysalted_almonds/pseuds/lightlysalted_almonds
Summary: Claire wants to give Zizel a very expensive gift.
Relationships: Claire Elford/Zizel
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	What's in the Box?

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by the time I got a diamond and immediately went to give it to Zizel. Also, I like to think Claire has a little bag that she uses to carry around her supplies and her gift box.
> 
> P.S. this is the first fic I've ever written, and most of it was done in the middle of the night so please be nice

Claire slipped through the door to her room, closing it behind her, and immediately turned to Zizel with a ridiculously giddy look on her face. She was practically vibrating as she stood there clutching her satchel with both hands, something sure had her worked up. After just a moment Claire raised the flowery linen bag up to her chest, holding it out just a bit so that the other girl could see. It looked like she was waiting for Zizel to ask her about it.

Zizel raised her eyebrow and smiled slightly. Cute. 

She didn’t make the move.

They stood like that for a few beats, and then Claire lowered the bag a bit. She seemed to have calmed down a little. “So? Are you going to ask what’s in the bag?” she asked with a grin. Just a little. 

“Oh of course, of course. What do you have, Claire?”

On cue, Claire sprung towards the table. She ducked her head under the bag’s lacy strap and dropped it in front of her. It hit the table with a heavy thunk. The girl shot Zizel that blinding smile of hers before turning back to the bag and rustling around a bit. With a triumphant noise she pulled out her gift box and held it up in the air.

Zizel giggled. “Quite a show you're putting on there”

“It's a special occasion!” Claire chimed, “Guess what I found! C’mon guess!"

Zizel hummed quietly and tapped her finger on her chin. She waited a beat before declaring, “A severed hand!”

The girl in front of her balked. She looked so horrified and taken aback that Zizel couldn’t help herself. She put her hand in front of her mouth as she started into a fit of airy laughter.

“Zizel! That isn’t funny! Why would you say that?!” Claire huffed indignantly and set the colorful box on the table in front of her. “And no, it's not that. I just found it and thought you’d really like it.”

With that, Claire popped off the box’s lid and reached inside. There was the sound of gift paper rustling and then, with both hands, she slowly pulled out her prize. Cradled between her palms was a gorgeous, glistening gemstone. The thing was beautifully cut and of an unnatural size. It took up nearly all of the space between Claire’s wide palms, and must have been as large as her fist. Zizel smiled softly, an unnatural stone for an unnatural place. She reached out to touch the stone. Zizel’s fingers drifted lightly across the surface of the gem, it was cold and smoother than glass. She let them glide to the edge of the stone, ghosting against Claire’s calloused thumb, and then digging into the space between the gem and her fingers. Claire’s hands, hot and rough enough to scratch a little. Claire gasped, sucking in breath she’d apparently been holding. Hmm. 

Zizel looked up to make eye contact as she carefully slipped the stone out of Claire’s grasp. Her deep blue eyes were wide, and her nose and cheeks were dusted pink. She looked like a bit of a deer in headlights, honestly. It made Zizel want to tease her. 

She kept her gaze steady, “So… where did you find this?”

“Oh,” Claire says breathlessly, glancing away for just a moment and seeming to come back down to earth. “I found it while I was watering the plants.” 

Zizel held the stone up to the light, watching it reflect and make dancing shapes all around it. “That’s certainly odd.” 

“Yeah!” Claire continues, once again filled with energy. “I was just watering the plants in the attic and it just appeared next to my foot. Completely out of thin air!” 

Zizel hummed thoughtfully. She could understand why Claire was so excited, this was definitely a diamond, an incredibly rare one at that. It should be worth enough to get her a few dozen moon drips, at least. “I can give you about ten thousand gold for this. What a lovely find, congratulations.”

Claire made an odd noise, somewhere in between a whine and a yelp. “No! I don’t want money for it, it’s a gift. You liked the amethyst I gave you so I thought you’d like this too!” Claire grabbed Zizel’s raised hand, wrapping both of hers around it and pulling it down to rest in between their chests. They stood like that for a while, less than a foot apart. Zizel giggled and Claire’s face lit up a bit, she was smiling again, but her face was pink and her hands were sweating a little. Zizel blew lightly on claires face. 

“Ehehe”, Claire laughed nervously as she pulled her hands away, holding them behind her back. She glanced away for a moment. She looked nice like that, face all soft and a little embarrassed. Blush covering her nose and cheeks, quiet, nervous smile, big blue eyes fixing on something meaningless. So pretty like that. Cute too, like a child with a grade school crush. How innocent she is.

Zizel broke the silence, “Money is somewhat meaningless to us demons Claire. I don’t mind paying you for it, and I’ll have it either way.”  
“But it’s different,” Claire argued “It’s much more meaningful as a present, expecting something in return completely ruins the point of giving gifts!” 

Zizel rubbed her small, manicured fingers along the surface of the gem, which had become even colder with her holding it. “Ah, but isnt that the premise of many popular human traditions? A ‘You give me a gift and I give you one in return’ type of scenario. I don’t think that’s abnormal, do you?”

Claire frowned. “Well… I can’t argue with that but…” She looked down, brows pinched a bit. Seems she’d been stumped on this one, how adorable. Zizel really doesn’t mind taking the diamond as a present, it’s just a little odd that Claire wants to give it to her, and of course there’s the issue of it just being more fun to make things a bit more difficult than they ought to be. Claire was exceptionally easy to tease. 

Claire started speaking again, that serious look still on her face, “I think that even if gifts are meant to be given because someone else is giving you something, that doesn’t mean that what you’re getting in return has to be something material.” Claire shifted to clasp her hands in front of herself, and her voice became a bit more forceful, “Sometimes people give each other gifts to say thank you for things that they’ve done in the past, like ‘thank you for helping me out when I got sick, here’s this gift to show how glad I am’. That kind of thing. Also, I think people give gifts to say ‘this is what our relationship means to me’ its like telling that person that ‘I think that spending time with you is a gift, so I want to give you one in return”

Claire met Zizel’s eyes and her smile was back to the blinding megawatt glow that’s so distinctive of her. “I want to give this to you because of how much you’ve helped me while I’ve been here! You’re always pointing me in the right direction and making sure the other demons don’t upset me too much. Also, I really like playing rock-paper-scissors with you, and reading books together, and the time you washed my hair in the bath was so nice, even if your hands were cold. I know you’re a demon, and you can be a lot to handle sometimes but… I can tell you care at least a little or you wouldn’t do all of that.”

The girl suddenly swung her arm forward, striking a dramatic pose with one arm outstretched to Zizel, fingers splayed. “So! Please accept this gift as a token of our friendship Zizel! May it last a long time and be as beautiful as this diamond!”

Zizel stared at Claire’s large, rough hand. It looked almost dainty spread out like that. She shook her head lightly, smiling more to herself than Claire, “How silly.” She stated. “Well, I don't mind, I do like this kind of thing.” 

Zizel watched Claire’s face as she clapped her hands together in excitement, the edges of her smile disappeared into her cheeks and crinkled up the edges of her eyes. Her eyes were a sight to see all on their own though, they were sparkling like stars in the abyss. The deep blue made it look like the night sky reflected onto the ocean, constantly shifting yet always the same. “It’s very pretty, I’m glad. Thank you Claire.”

She looked down at the diamond, her reflection was ghostlike, but beautifully clear. When Zizel looked closely, she could see that her cheeks had gone just the slightest bit red.

**Author's Note:**

> SORRY I JUST REALIZED I PUT THE INTRODUCTION IN THE STORY AS WELL SHSJSJSJSJSJSJS


End file.
